THE RETURN OF THE DUTCH FOOD REVIEW

Hi everyone, sorry I have not posted in a while, this blog site has some funky things going on right now (hence the reason the type here is underlined) I have heard the most postive feedback from folks concerning the food review, so I present to you a very special edition of DaveGoesDutch, with 5 whole food reviews. Its a food review bonanza, and everything must go.



Carrot Balls

Carrot Balls are a wonderful find. They have renewed my love for carrots. At first I was very excited when I found these, for I believed that the Dutch had engineered a spherical carrot. To my dismay, it turns out that these things are made the same way that “baby” carrots are, by cutting regular carrots. Although I no longer eat these with the same look of bewilderment and hope in my eye, they still are a great shape for carrots. A- (would have been an A+ if they grew that way)

Bungel Stroop

I tried to make pancakes one day, so I purchased this stuff thinking that it was syrup. I still am convinced that its purpose is to go on top of pancakes, it just does a horrible job. Man is this stuff revolting. It almost seems to be pure corn syrup, its got no flavor other than sugar goo, or a gooey version of hummingbird food. I did not like this and will not be purchasing it in the future. I also was very disappointed to find out that the cool looking top of the can does not have any kind of internal propulsion device to extrude the goo from the bottle, its just a straw, you have to squeeze the bottle. F-

Albert Heijn 1 Persoons Wok Schotel

Albert Heijn is the local grocer, and they are good at what they do. Half of the products in the store carry the Albert Heijn brand. One thing that is majorly different between US and Dutch grocery stores is the fact that Dutch grocery stores have a very limited frozen food section. I don't mind this fact because my freezer is the size of a shoebox. The Albert Heijn frozen food selection consists of frozen pizza, ice cream, french fries, various krokets and other deep fried dutch treats (more on these in future posts), and the only vegetable they sell frozen: Spinach.

There is a complete lack of an American staple, the frozen dinner. As someone who relied on frozen dinners for 2-3 meals a week (sad I know) adjusting to cooking here took some time, but the above product is a great example of how to replace frozen dinners with real food that is good, doesn't make you feel sad and is made for one person. I have heard that 40% of the Dutch population is single and lives alone, I am not sure if this is true or not, but it would explain why Albert Heijn caters so well to the single person. They carry hundreds of dinner kits to make a healthy, fresh dinner for one. My favorite is their wok series. It consists of a plastic tray that is divided into three separate containers, each with their own individual plastic film cover. One of the containers is filled with an uncooked meat (or tofu and egg as pictured above), another contains either rice or pasta with a sauce, and the largest container contains fresh, chopped up vegitables. These vegitables are really high quality, were not talking about brocoli stalks and mushy carrots. So you heat up a tablespoon of oil in the ol wok, throw in the meat, cook for 2 mins, then throw in the veggies, cook for two mins, then throw in the sauce and noodles/rice, cook for two mins, and BAM dinner for one. Its a lot of food too, very easily could be dinner for two. There are about 8 different kinds of these I have seen so far and they even have 2 and 4 person versions. I think I have eaten every kind (this is dinner 2-3 nights a week for me) and I have yet to find one that isn't great. A+

Euro Shopper Beer

The Ramen noodle of Beer. That is the best way to sum up Euro Shopper Beer. To begin, I should inform you of what Euro Shopper is.

Euro Shopper is the generic brand in Europe. Think of it as a Euro-Spartin brand. I have Euro Shopper sugar, maccroni, tuna, window cleaner, and now Beer. I think I bought this can strictly because it just says BEER in big letters across the can. Euro Shopper is really cheap, really really cheap. I think these beers are around 25 cents a can. You can usually find these beers on some pallet they leave in the middle of the beer isle. Its usally really disorganized, with beer cans rolling around on the floor. Every time you take a can off the pallet, several fall on the ground (sometimes they even explode) People put items they decieded not to buy on the pallet, so its really just a sight to see. After you have made your beer purchase, you must return home and put it in the fridge for 2-3 days, because this stuff comes warm and for some reason never gets that cold. Maybe the ability to retain cold temperature was too expensive for this beer, so that 'feature' was removed. Once you have acheived the desired temp you open the can up (sometimes it is a pull tab) The taste is not good. It brings me back to my college days when on Sunday I would help friends finish the keg from the party they had Thursday night. Stale, flat, and somewhat sweet, this beer will be my first and last Euro Shopper Beer. B+ (it is still beer, so it can't lose too many points)

Hagelslag

This is a true Dutch food. Dutch Hagelslag (or chocolate sprinkles as we call them, I think some people also call these jimmies) was invented by Gerard de Vries in 1936. The story goes something like; little boy writes Mr Vries telling him he wants a chocolate topping for his bread, so the guy invents Hagelslag, end of story. They are named Hagelslag due to their resemblence to hail.
Now I know what some of you are thinking, "Dave, great the Dutch invented sprinkles, wonderful, why did you buy three different boxes of sprinkles?" The reason is to make sandwiches out of them. The typical recipe goes something like this:

-Two pieces of white bread
-butter
-Hagelslag

Lightly butter the two pieces of bread, take one of the pieces and sprinkle a lot of sprinkles on the bread. Now sprinkle some more. Place the other piece of bread on top, so that both buttered sides of the bread are in direct contact with the sprinkles. Now with your hands, smash the sandwich flat. Then eat it.

I know it sounds the exact opposite of good, I used to think the same thing. Then I ate one. They are really good. This might be due to the really good chocolate they use. There are serveral versions of hagelslag on the market, I have three above to review.

Lets start with the ones with the monkey on the box, because monkeys are awesome. This type contains both white and brown hagel, the white being vanillia and the brown being haselnut. The bonus thing about this type is it also comes with little white chocolate monkey heads mixed in with the spinkles. While this brand scores points for its use of monkeys, I found the flavor not to be on par with the other types of hagelslag I have enjoyed. B

The middle box is the worst of the hagel I have tried. The box is small because it represnts a single serving box. These kind are colorful and taste like your standard rainbow sprinkles, or sugar. Not good. D

The last box is Fair Trade hagelslag. I was compeltely unaware of the human rights abuses going on in the Hagel industry, but I can now sleep better at night knowing that I am purchasing fair trade hagelslag. This flavor is Melk, or milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is call purr. This is my favorite type of hagel, although I have heard there are better brands out there. If you know of a better brand, please provide its name in the comments section. A-